Job 17:14

Modern

…and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

Traditional

I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

Literal

…if to the Pit I call out, ‘You are My father,’ or to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister’—

Latin

Putredini dixi: Pater meus es; Mater mea, et soror mea, vermibus.

Hebrew

English

…and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

my father … mother … sister: This sad imitation of a family gathering in a cemetery shows how Job imagined his coming death.

Job no longer trusted his friends and thought he would die without hope (6:15–21; 13:4–5; 16:2–3; compare 12:2).

Theme notes and profiles

Psalm 16:10
For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.
Job 21:26
But together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both.
1 Corinthians 15:53–54
For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
Isaiah 14:11
Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are your bed and worms your blanket.
Acts 2:27–31
…because You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.
Job 30:30
My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.
Acts 13:34–37
In fact, God raised Him from the dead, never to see decay. As He has said: ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.’
Job 24:20
The womb forgets them; the worm feeds on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is broken like a tree.
Job 13:28
So man wastes away like something rotten, like a moth-eaten garment.
Psalm 49:9
…that he should live on forever and not see decay.
1 Corinthians 15:42
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead: What is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable.
Job 21:32–33
He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.